Ellen Goldring received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. She is the Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy, in the Department of Leadership, Policy and Organizations, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. 
Her research interests focus on the intersection of education policy and school improvement with particular emphases on education leadership. Her research examines leadership practice, and the implementation and effects of interventions such as professional development, coaching, district reform, scaling up, and performance feedback. A fellow of the American Educational Research Association and Past Vice-President of AERA's Division of Policy and Politics, she is the recipient of the University Council for Educational Administration’s Roald F. Campbell Lifetime Achievement Award; she has appeared on the United States Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings of top scholars in education policy for the past few years.  She is the current editor-in-chief of the American Educational Research Journal. She is the author of numerous books and hundreds of articles. The primary theme of Dr. Goldring’s contributions is her concern with preparing educational administrators who can creatively promote teaching and learning in complex policy environments.  She holds that administrators who deeply understand the process of learning for their own part, are then able to transfer this knowledge and experience to directing the process of learning in the schools which they lead. She has widespread experience in brokering between researchers, policymakers and school leaders. The department she chaired for ten years at Peabody College has been ranked number one by the US News and World rankings for the past 12 years.

Mail: ellen.goldring@vanderbilt.edu